And one from Arabic, in the debut grant year: Elizabeth Winslow for her translation from the Arabic of The War Works Hard by Dunya Mikhail. It was published by New Directions in 2005.

The War Works Hard (which was a poetry collection that worked hard) went on to be short-listed for Canada’s Griffin Poetry Prize in 2006. It was also named one of the 25 Books to Remember of 2005 by the New York Public Library.

Why haven’t there been more grants for Arabic literary projects? In 2015, there were a paltry four Arabic applications among the year’s record-breaking 226. No Arabic-English projects received grants. All applicants for the 2016 PEN/Heim Translation Fund should have received an update about the status of their application before July 1, 2016, but no public announcement has yet been made.